Greens push Senate voting reform

The Australian Greens have endorsed a change to the Senate voting method to reduce the ability of micro-parties to game the system.

The Greens endorsed a motion to progress the issue at its national council meeting in Sydney over the weekend.

"Senate voting reform is urgently required to improve our democracy and that this should be achieved through the abolition of group voting tickets and introduction of above the line, optional preferential voting," the unanimously endorsed motion read.

The current system of group voting tickets and compulsory preferencing of all candidates below the line has enabled some candidates to be elected with as little as one per cent of the primary vote.

The Greens would prefer to get cross-party support for legislation before the election due in late 2016.

But if such agreement can't be reached a private bill would be brought to parliament for debate, a spokesman told AAP on Monday.

It is understood minister in charge of electoral matters, Michael Ronaldson, has previously held talks with the Greens on the proposed change.

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But the government fears that if it goes ahead with legislation now, rather than closer to an election, there could be a backlash from micro-party crossbenchers.

The coalition could pass the changes without the support of Labor if the Greens are on board, but this would jeopardise the non-partisan nature of the electoral system.

A cross-party committee has already recommended the change be made but no action has been taken on the finding.

Modelling by the parliamentary library based on the 2013 election result showed the proposed new system would have delivered the Greens the same number of seats, boosted Labor's Senate seats by two and given the coalition an extra seat.

Nick Xenophon's team in South Australia would have taken two seats.

The Greens say this would have more accurately reflected primary vote numbers in each state.